America must find its Mideast moxie once again

I am beyond morally outraged. Early Sunday morning, a Jordanian gunman mowed down three Israeli civilians at the Allenby Bridge border crossing. Although Jordan claimed to be investigating the incident, what is nauseating is the fact that in the streets of Amman, thousands of citizens celebrated with fireworks, flags and cheers.

The United States gives Jordan approximately $1.6 billion annually, mostly for humanitarian assistance. The appropriations to Jordan have been in effect since the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan on Oct. 26, 1994. Ever since Jordan’s King Hussein and Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin signed that agreement, Israel has been providing Jordan with 50 million cubic meters of water from the Yarmouk River; the continuation of the special role that Jordan has in overseeing the Muslim holy mosques in Jerusalem; and cooperation against terrorism, including the prevention of cross-border attacks and smuggling.

King Hussein died of cancer in 1999 and was succeeded to the throne by his eldest son, King Abdullah, who rules over a restive population that is 70% Palestinian. Unfortunately, every year during Ramadan, official Jordanian statements are used to create feelings of enmity and mistrust, such as “the Jews are defiling the Al-Aqsa mosques with their filthy feet.” The situation in the Gaza Strip has led to more empathy among the Jordanian population for the Palestinian struggle, resulting in increasingly growing public protests against Israel and increased participation in organizations such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Currently, Jordan is turning a blind eye as weapons are being smuggled from Iran, through Jordan and into Judea and Samaria. The cities of Jenin and Tulkarem are now part of the conflict zone, where the population favors Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in every public opinion poll.

Yes, we understand the constraints on King Abdullah. However, if the Jordanian government partakes in magnanimity from the State of Israel and American taxpayers’ largess, why can’t this same government educate its people towards mutual respect and tolerance? Why do the Jordanian textbooks continue to promulgate antisemitism and are among the most hate-infested textbooks in the world?

What has happened, particularly since Oct. 7, to make the international community deaf, blind and mute around the public celebrations of the deliberate and willful cold-blooded murder of Jews?

Then there’s Egypt. On March 26, 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat courageously signed an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, enabling the normalization of and diplomatic relations between the two countries, free navigation of the waterways and a demilitarization of the Sinai Desert. Sadat had a cautious relationship with the largest Sunni Islam militant organization—the Muslim Brotherhood—founded by Hassan al Banna in 1928. The group quickly gained legitimacy and prominence, particularly among the lower classes of Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood rejected former President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s secular pan-Arabism. When a member of the group attempted to assassinate Nasser in 1954, many were arrested, driving the group underground. One of those arrested was Sayid Qutb, whose severe teachings led to the establishment of Al-Qaeda and Hamas. Through its vast social-service network, the Brotherhood rapidly gained popularity. Sadat allowed the organization to emerge from the shadows, freeing thousands of Brotherhood members from prisons; ultimately, he paid for peace with his life.

Under Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood was granted increased political legitimacy until the “Arab Spring” of 2011, when their forces became so powerful that the Tahrir Square demonstrations served to overthrow him and replace him with the Muslim Brotherhood Presidency of Mohammad Morsi. Following more turbulent, mass protests, Morsi was overthrown by a military coup, imprisoned and sentenced to a 25-year term for “leading a group established against the law.” In May of 2015, he was sentenced to death for colluding with Hamas and Hezbollah. Morsi collapsed and died in prison. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who replaced Morsi, remains apprehensive about the political power of the Muslim Brotherhood and has gone through periodic episodes of cracking down significantly on the group, imprisoning them and forcing it underground.

Yet there is only one way that Hamas had been able to receive its massive arsenal of missiles and armaments for its 11-month operation against Israel, and that is through the (heretofore) Egyptian-controlled Philadelphi corridor and its vast network of underground tunnels stretching from Gaza into Egypt.

Every year, the United States appropriates $1.3 billion in military assistance to Egypt. Where is the congressional oversight?

And what about Lebanon? Every year, the United States has been providing the Lebanese Armed Forces with at least $300 million each year to act as an impediment against Hezbollah. However, Lebanon is a failed state that has let its government become overrun by the Iranian proxy Hezbollah. The Lebanese Armed Forces, in addition to the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed (UNIFIL), cower to the bullying demands of Hezbollah. The Shia Iranian proxy has occupied the neighborhoods of Southern Lebanon, hiding bombs, rockets, missiles and drones within homes, mosques and schools. For decades, they have used their Boy Scouts network to influence children as young as 8 to join Hezbollah.

Ever since the end of the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, Hezbollah has been digging massive tunnels—not dissimilar to what extends from Gaza into Egypt—from which terrorists can pop out and kidnap Israeli children.

Hezbollah has failed to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, calling for it to retreat north of the Litani River. Since Oct. 8, in solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah has engaged in a constant and steady war of attrition from the north—firebombing forests and farmlands, and making entire Israeli cities uninhabitable. Between 60,000 and 80,000 residents of Israel’s northern cities and towns have been made to feel like internally displaced refugees in their own homeland.

Of course, the greatest outrage is that on Oct. 7, Jewish babies were burned in ovens in front of their parents. Parents were murdered in cold blood in front of their children. Women were raped en masse. Some 250 Israelis and other foreign nationals were kidnapped and dragged into Gaza, while 1,200 were murdered in the most barbaric ways imaginable.

America has got to find its moxie again, particularly when it comes to the Middle East. Since taxpayers’ dollars fund Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, they require some sort of oversight, scrutiny or accountability. And what we regard as “not shaking the status quo” appears as appeasement to much of the international community.

As has happened so frequently in history, if Washington does not wake up soon, more terrorism will be coming soon to a theater near us. Or as Winston Churchill once said, “You have been offered a choice between dishonor and war. You have chosen dishonor, and you will get war.”